Genre
RÉGIS-FRANÇOIS GIGNOUX (1816–1882)
Skating Scene, 1847
Sepia ink drawing heightened with Chinese white on pale green wove paper, with embossed borders,
7 1/16 x 9 7/8 in.
Signed and dated (at lower right): R. Gignoux 1847
Embossed (at lower left): E. BRÉAUTÉ
EX COLL.: M. A. Townsend; sale, William Doyle Galleries, New York, April 13, 1988, no. 43; to [Alexander Galleries, New York, 1988–89]; to private collection, 1989 until the present
Gignoux appears to have executed relatively few drawings. The formality and completeness of the present drawing suggests that it was not a direct “sketch from nature” but rather a work done in his studio. Its enframement in an embossed rococo frame characteristic of the Victorian era suggests that it was done for presentation and may indeed have been executed specifically for the album from which it was removed.
The paper on which this drawing was executed bears the embossed stamp of E. Bréauté. That firm, with its address given as 11, rue de la Monnaie, Paris, was listed as a “manufacturer” of “Aquarelle card paper, and embossed cards for drawings and frames” in the Official Descriptive and Illustrated Catalogue of the Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations (London: Spicer Brothers, 1851), which was held at the Crystal Palace, London, in 1851.
The drawing was taken from an Album amicorum assembled in the 19th century, presumably by M. A. Townsend, or as a gift to M. A. Townsend, whose name is embossed in gold on the cover. Other artists represented in the collection were Frederic Edwin Church, Asher B. Durand, Jasper Francis Cropsey, one of the Weirs, Walter M. Oddie, Henry Inman, et al. Because of the dates on the drawings, the collection was probably put together in the late 1840s.
